Naomi Cooper
Northrop Grumman has secured a task order to help the Department of Defense convert the U.S. Air Force’s EQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk aircraft into a hypersonic system testing technology.
The aerospace and defense contractor said Monday it will start engineering and planning work under the DOD Test Resource Management Center’s SkyRange program and will equip four unmanned aircraft vehicles with sensors intended to support data collection and monitoring of hypersonic missile tests.
Northrop will modify the drone systems at Grand Sky unmanned aircraft development and testing facility in North Dakota.
Jane Bishop, vice president and general manager of global surveillance at Northrop, said the facility has a 35,000 sq. ft. hangar and is the ideal location to support Global Hawk’s engineering modification work.
Northrop-manufactured Global Hawk is an autonomous platform that supports intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions of the Air Force and global partners. The aircraft undergoes ground station, cyber resiliency and mission planning upgrades to support U.S. combatant commands.
